Anemone (2025) [4K UHD Review]

Many people didn’t go see Anemone in their local arthouse theaters. Here’s the thing about Daniel Day-Lewis coming out of retirement: it was never supposed to happen. When he walked away after Phantom Thread in 2017, the statement was definitive—he would no longer work as an actor. Period. End of story.

So when Focus Features announced that the three-time Oscar winner would star in Anemone, a film he co-wrote with his 27-year-old son Ronan Day-Lewis (who also directed), the entertainment world collectively lost its mind. Now the film has arrived on 4K UHD from Universal Pictures, and while Anemone isn’t the triumphant masterpiece some hoped for, it’s a genuinely compelling watch that proves Day-Lewis hasn’t lost a step as a performer—even if the script he helped write doesn’t quite match his extraordinary talents.

The Comeback Nobody Expected

Let’s address the elephant in the room: why did Daniel Day-Lewis come back? The answer, it turns out, is beautifully simple—his son asked him to.

In interviews surrounding the film’s 2025 New York Film Festival premiere, Day-Lewis admitted he never intended to fully retire. The 2017 announcement was about needing space, about feeling like he might not have the capacity to regenerate after the emotional demands of his craft. But watching his son develop as a filmmaker created what he called “residual sadness” about missing the opportunity to collaborate. When Ronan pitched Anemone, the pull proved irresistible.

What’s remarkable about the film is how completely Day-Lewis disappears into Ray Stoker, a hermit living in self-imposed exile in the woods of Northern England. This is a man hollowed out by guilt, carrying decades of trauma from his service during the Troubles—the violent thirty-year conflict between British forces and paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. When his brother Jem (Sean Bean) arrives at his remote cabin with news that Ray’s now-teenage son has gone AWOL from the military, the stage is set for an agonizing confrontation between siblings who haven’t spoken in twenty years.

Sean Bean Delivers His Best Work in Years

If Day-Lewis’s return grabbed headlines, Sean Bean’s performance deserves equal attention. The Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings veteran has built a career on playing characters who die memorably, but Anemone asks something different of him—sustained emotional availability across a two-hour chamber drama. Bean rises to the challenge magnificently.

As Jem, he’s the brother who stayed. The one who married Ray’s abandoned partner Nessa (Samantha Morton), raised Ray’s son as his own, and maintained faith while Ray disappeared into the wilderness. There’s something deeply moving about watching Bean navigate scenes where he must absorb Day-Lewis’s volcanic monologues without flinching, serving as both audience surrogate and emotional anchor. The chemistry between these two titans of British acting is the film’s greatest asset—when they share the screen, Anemone crackles with tension and history.

Morton, though criminally underused, brings weight to every moment she’s given. Her Nessa is a woman who kept her family together while the men in her life fell apart, and Morton conveys decades of resilience in minimal screen time. Samuel Bottomley and Safia Oakley-Green round out the cast as the younger generation inheriting their elders’ dysfunction.

Ronan Day-Lewis Shows Visual Promise Despite Narrative Stumbles

Here’s where Anemone gets complicated. Ronan Day-Lewis is clearly a filmmaker with a painter’s eye—his work in visual art preceded this directorial debut—and the film is frequently stunning to look at. Cinematographer Ben Fordesman captures the Northern English landscape in ways that feel almost mythic, all dense foliage, damp atmospherics, and shadows that seem to breathe. There are surreal touches throughout, including levitating women, violent hailstorms, and what might be UFO imagery, that gesture toward something more ambitious than conventional family drama.

The problem is the script. Co-written by father and son, Anemone withholds information in ways that feel more frustrating than artful. We’re nearly two-thirds through the film before the Troubles are even explicitly mentioned, despite the entire narrative revolving around Ray’s wartime trauma. Plot points arrive obliquely, forcing audiences to piece together basic facts that the screenplay seems determined to obscure.

When revelations do come—particularly Ray’s confession about a mercy killing that resulted in his being labeled a war criminal—they land with devastating impact. But getting there requires patience that some viewers won’t have.

The Rotten Tomatoes consensus captures the critical divide nicely: Anemone succeeds more as a showcase for its star’s magnetism than as cohesive drama. That’s a fair assessment, though it undersells how powerful those showcase moments can be.

The 4K UHD Presentation Is Reference Quality

Whatever reservations critics have about Anemone as storytelling, the 4K UHD release is impeccable. The Dolby Vision transfer captures Fordesman’s moody cinematography with stunning fidelity—forest scenes reveal precise gradations in shadow and greenery, while the cabin interiors feel appropriately claustrophobic. The Dolby Atmos audio mix is equally impressive, particularly during a late hailstorm sequence that becomes genuinely immersive.

The disappointing news? There are absolutely no bonus features. Not even a trailer. Given that this represents a father-son collaboration between one of cinema’s greatest actors and a first-time director, the absence of a behind-the-scenes documentary or audio commentary feels like a significant missed opportunity. You’re buying this disc for the film itself and the quality of the transfer—nothing more.

The package includes a standard Blu-ray and digital code alongside the 4K disc, so at least it’s complete in terms of format options. The November 25, 2025 release date positioned it perfectly for holiday gift-giving, and for Day-Lewis completists, it’s an essential addition to the collection.

Who Will Connect With Anemone

If you’re a Daniel Day-Lewis devotee, this is unmissable regardless of the film’s flaws. The man can still command a screen like nobody else, and watching him deliver extended monologues about violence, guilt, and the impossibility of redemption reminds you why he’s considered one of the greatest actors who ever lived. His scenes with Bean are worth the price of admission alone.

If you’re interested in films about the Troubles, Anemone offers a perspective you don’t often see—the British soldier wrestling with complicity rather than the more common Irish nationalist viewpoint. Films like ’71 and In the Name of the Father (which also starred Day-Lewis) approach the conflict differently. Ronan Day-Lewis has talked about wanting to explore the experience without the film’s point of view “merging with the oppressor,” and there’s genuine moral complexity in how Ray’s trauma is portrayed.

If you need narrative propulsion in your family dramas, approach with caution. Anemone moves at a deliberately slow pace, and its oblique storytelling style will frustrate viewers who prefer clarity. The film is comfortable sitting in ambiguity far longer than most audiences will be.

The Larger Question: What Does This Comeback Mean?

Day-Lewis has indicated he hasn’t fully closed the door on acting again. The experience of making Anemone with his son left him feeling like there might be more to give, that the need for self-expression through performance remains even when he’s not actively working. That’s tantalizing for fans who hoped this might be a one-off.

But Anemone also demonstrates the risks of collaborative projects driven by personal relationships rather than purely creative ones. Would this screenplay have been produced if written by anyone other than a three-time Oscar winner? Almost certainly not. The nepotism critique is unavoidable, even if Ronan Day-Lewis shows genuine visual talent that suggests a real filmmaking future.

What Anemone ultimately represents is something rarer than a masterpiece—an honest attempt by a father and son to create something meaningful together, with all the messiness that implies. The film is overlong, underwritten, and occasionally maddening in its refusal to communicate clearly. It’s also frequently beautiful, anchored by performances that justify the hype, and dealing with themes—inherited trauma, the impossibility of escape, the complicated love between brothers—that resonate beyond its flaws.

Anemone is now available on 4K UHD at MovieZyng

Anemone isn’t the triumphant comeback vehicle some hoped for, and it won’t rank among Day-Lewis’s greatest films. But it’s a fascinating object nonetheless—a first-time director wrestling with themes beyond his current skill level, elevated by a cast that includes two of the finest actors of their generation. The 4K presentation is gorgeous, even if the bare-bones disc offers nothing beyond the film itself.

For Day-Lewis completists and serious cinephiles, it’s worth experiencing. For casual viewers, the theatrical release or streaming option on Peacock might be the smarter choice before committing to a purchase. But if you’re drawn to ambitious failures as much as polished successes—if you believe there’s value in watching great actors do battle with imperfect material—Anemone deserves your attention.

The film is currently available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and Digital from Universal Pictures. It’s also streaming on Peacock and available for rental on Apple TV and Fandango at Home.

Anemone Quick Reference Details

Title: Anemone

Release Date: October 3, 2025 (Limited Theatrical); October 10, 2025 (Wide); November 25, 2025 (4K UHD/Blu-ray)

Runtime: 2 hours 5 minutes

Rating: R

Director: Ronan Day-Lewis (feature debut)

Writers: Daniel Day-Lewis, Ronan Day-Lewis

Producers: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Daniel Day-Lewis, Brad Pitt (Plan B Entertainment)

Production Company: Plan B Entertainment, Focus Features

Distributor: Focus Features (Theatrical), Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (Physical Media)

Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis as Ray Stoker, Sean Bean as Jem, Samantha Morton as Nessa, Samuel Bottomley as Brian, Safia Oakley-Green as Hattie

Cinematographer: Ben Fordesman

Composer: Bobby Krlic

Critical Reception: 53% Rotten Tomatoes (131 reviews); 53/100 Metacritic (41 reviews)

4K UHD Specs: Dolby Vision HDR, Dolby Atmos audio, includes Blu-ray and Digital Code; no bonus features

Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Peacock (streaming), Fandango at Home, Physical retailers

Related Coverage at AndersonVision: Check out our coverage of British cinema, 4K UHD reviews, and award season contenders

Official Sources: Focus Features, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes